Cushioned automotive strap handles are a well-developed art as best shown in Moore et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,952,383; 3,977,054; and 4,174,988 and Cunnington U.S. Pat. No. 2,206,078. For the last decade or so, such handles have used a spring steel base strip with its ends formed for mounting to give the strap handle flexibility and strength. The steel strip has been assembled with a cushion and a shoulder strip wrapped within a cover that is dielectrically sealed with a seam-concealing trim strip. To help bond the assembled parts together with the dielectric seal, the steel strip has been made with a polyvinyl chloride laminate on the side where the seal is made. The shoulder strip is extruded with a groove for receiving the laminated steel strip, and the shoulder strip is assembled to the steel strip by spreading the shoulders apart to open the groove and snap the shoulder strip over the edges of the steel strip.
Besides expense, which is always an issue in manufacturing automotive components, the prior art process of making cushioned strap handles involves several unsolved problems.
The shoulder strip occasionally falls off the steel strip before assembly and must be reattached to the steel strip before the assembly can be completed. This slows down assembly operations. Also, the shoulders of the shoulder strip sometimes move transversely of the steel strip when the strap handle is subjected to twisting forces. This can displace the shoulder strip and disfigure the appearance of the strap handle.
I have devised a way of molding a shouldered cladding directly onto a steel strip to solve these problems and also reduce the expense of the strap handle. My method produces sturdy strap handles that resist harsh use and yet are less expensive to make than prior art strap handles.